Fork lifts are commonplace in industry and widely used for moving objects resting on pallets and for other purposes. Equipment of this type generally includes a motorized truck having a vertically oriented carriage along which two spaced forks or tines are moveable in and up and down direction. The tines may also be moved toward and away from the truck to assist with the manipulation of loads placed on the tines.
While dedicated fork lifts of the type described above are effective and useful in a variety of applications, they are not always available on job sites and many do not have the size or lifting capacity to handle larger loads. One solution to this problem has been suggested, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,022,184; 4,274,798 and 3,325,023. These patents disclose fork lift attachments which may be temporarily clamped onto the blade portion of the loader bucket found on equipment such as backhoe loaders and front end loaders. Generally, fork lift attachments comprise two tines which are spaced from one another and clamped onto the substantially planar blade portion of the loader bucket immediately rearward from its cutting edge. Each tine has a lower bearing surface that extends beneath the blade portion of the loader bucket and a screw-type clamp that contacts the top surface of the blade such that the blade is sandwiched between the clamp and lower bearing surface. The backhoe loader, front end loader or other piece of equipment with a loader bucket is thus temporarily converted to a fork lift and may be employed to lift and manipulate objects in the manner of a dedicated fork lift.